Sunday, July 12, 2009

Chad Billingsley may be the ace of this team, but Clayton Kershaw is the ace of right now. The Dodgers have won Kershaw's past six starts, and he's gotten the victory in four of those games. The only knock against him are the walks — he issued five today — that prevent him from going deeper into games. But the Dodgers don't want to overburden this developing arm. Kershaw has the entire second half to work on his pitch efficiency.

Here's a list of Dodgers who hit at least one home run on this just-concluded road trip:

Brad Ausmus

Chad Billingsley

Casey Blake

Blake DeWitt

Andre Ethier

Rafael Furcal

Orlando Hudson

Matt Kemp

James Loney

Russell Martin

Manny Ramirez

That's right: All eight starting position players are on that list. Not that the team can't use some improvement, but the Dodgers — at 24 games over .500 — are in fine overall shape heading into the All-Star break.